Oddly enough, I just watched The Critic's review on this one two nights ago. I'm amazed they got the original cast members to make an appearance. I heard a long time that George Lucas actively tried to destroy all evidence of the show in an attempt to prevent anyone from seeing it. Yay, internet! I was not, however, aware of this production. I thought Lucas was after The Ewok Adventure (1984).

From what I've seen of The Star Wars Holiday Special, it's... wow. I can't believe my eyes. George Lucas is responsible for some of the worst productions in cinematic history (Phantom Menace), and The Star Wars Holiday Special is even worse. Think of how bad it must be.

I have a theory that in Return of the Jedi, Endor was really intended to be the homeworld of the Chewbacca and the Wookiees. Sure hundreds of Wookiee costumes would have been expensive, but Jedi had a huge budget. So what happened? Wookiees were enslaved by the Empire and forced to work in outer space building Death Stars. Instead we got the cut-down version of Wookiees: the Ewoks. And perhaps The Star Wars Holiday Special explains why. Ewoks are hated by many Star Wars fans. Rocks, bows and arrows taking out Storm Troopers no problem? How goofy is that! Storm Troopers versus an army of Wookiees? Cool! But due to the disaster that is The Star Wars Holiday Special, George could not bear to see anymore Wookiees on screen other than Chewbacca (who's homeworld and heritage was later revealed in Episode III as some royalty bullsh!t closely associated with Yoda. You know what? I not even sure The Star Wars Holiday Special is worse than the prequels anymore.)
Anyway. The whole Wookiee thing was botched in this Christmas Special.

Believe it or not, I have watched the whole thing from start to finish. I hope I am the only one on this board to have done so, because stupidity like that should be rare.

It's kind of fascinating. There is no explanation other than that the directors were geniuses, and engineered the worst, most boring film that could ever be made, to complete success. It is at times painful, exhausting, boring, baffling, and even at sparse moments (unintentionally) funny, but never is it good. Not even so bad that it's good. It's so bad that "bad" ceases to have any meaning next to this thing. I can honestly come up with no valid reason for me or anyone else to watch the Star Wars Holiday Special.